


Anchored to the Spot

by MASTERRAINBOW



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Established Relationship, Post IPRE, how Lup became the umbra staff basiclly, slight Barry/Lup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 21:30:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10750200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MASTERRAINBOW/pseuds/MASTERRAINBOW
Summary: Lup would always wonder what a weight in her chest represented. She would go and seek it out herself if the same felling also kept her stuck waiting for someone.





	Anchored to the Spot

When she wakes up for the second time she gasps in a sharp breath of air and a strong feeling that she has to stay where she is. The next feeling was the headache that shot through her head, causing her to growl in frustration and clutch her head. Upon looking up she saw unfamiliar faces, causing her to scootch back against the wall, sending another sharp pain to shoot down her spin and her hand to shoot forward and unleash a fireball towards the figures in front of her.  
She pushed back against the cavern wall behind her as another headache and she heard voice call at her, almost not recognizing her own name but then her head cleared enough to figure out that they were calling her the right thing, Lup. That was her name.

As Lup’s eyes fluttered open she saw a small family of dwarfs in front of her and she clutched her umbrella in fear as they came closer or at least until the memories kept drifting back into her head. These were the dwarfs that rescued her from nearly dying. They cared for her and let her hide something, something important that she really couldn’t remember. Just something important. 

The dwarfs look concerned and walk closer to her but their faces become softer when recognition crosses her face and one of them sighs. “We were worried there for a second. You just passed out on us girly, been out for a few days. Thought you’d wake up rough like that.”

Lup looked over him and her brain filled in the gap as he was the head of the Rockseeker clan, Gundren’s dad. He was the one more willing to put up with her then anyone else. He was the one who agreed to keep her safe and keep her treasure safe, if only she could remember what it was.

She smirked as she straightened herself up and placed a hand on her knee and relaxed slight, not making any move to get up.  “You know I’m made to be unpredictable Rockseeker, part of the Lup charm.”

He doesn’t seem as impressed as he crosses his arms and look along the rest of the dwarfs besides him. “Aye then come on. We need to head out of here.”

She chuckles and he glares down at her as she tries to get up but the strong pull in her chest roots her in place and she shifts slightly. She looked over their worried faces for a second before smirking back at them. “Hey just a thought, simple thought here brosiks. Why don’t I stay behind here, to protect the safe?” They did not seem interested in that and some of them took a defensive stance against her while narrowing their eyes in disbelief. “Hey, hey, hey. Come on. You said you wanted to keep it safe, what’s better than a wizard?”

They all seem more trusting of her after that some giving off nods and Grundon even tapping his father’s shoulder as they nodded and moved off. Only one stayed behind, a nice looking troll woman who smiled kindly at her and kneeled forward and tilted her head slightly as to look into Lup’s eyes and seek the truth inside of them. She must have read the determination and fire hidden in her eyes because she  sighed before speaking softly, “do you need something, besides food I suppose.”  
Lup smiled as she looked at her open palm where a flame sputtered in her hand, causing her to close it quickly and look up at the dwarf woman. “Books, on magic.”

 

From then it was the same routine, every day a member of the Rockseeker clan would come offer food as a peace offering while rarely offering her a book.She stood still and most seemed surprised to see her seated in the same spot over and over again, never moving. Most didn’t stay around longer than offering simple pleasantries. Though there was a few that did stay behind and ask her a few questions, as in they were testing her alliance with them. The only other few that did stay behind was a few mother allowing their children to run along the cavernes. The children would be drawn to her and her glowing orbs she used as lights. Lup didn’t mind them as much unless they got in the way of her books or try and take her food.

“Can you tell one of your stories again?” Asked one of the kids who sat down a good few feet away from her but bounced impatiently in his seat. As he asked that some of the kids interrupted their paying to cheer to sit down besides him smiling widely.

Lup only chuckled and tilted her head at the congregation of children in front of her, “Do what now Takito?”

The small aged dwarven woman chuckled, the lines on her face pulling into the lines on her aged face. “The children wished for a story, you used to tell a good one as I remember.”

“About a boy!” A kids yelled and jumped excitly as the rest of them cheered in agreement.

Lup’s ears twitched slightly as she chuckled nervously. As she opened her mouth speak the feeling that's been anchoring her to the same spot fluttered and weighed down in her chest like a ton of bricks. And suddenly she is hit with such a feeling of love she doesn't notice the headache that rips through her skull once more. She chuckled almost uncomfortably as her ears flickered down, “What?”

“The boy,” more then one of the kids shouted at her and they seemed slightly annoyed as they start to crowd around her slightly. So much that the dwarven woman had to intervene and get some of the kids away from her, chiding them as they went.

“We’re so sorry Lup,” she apologized while Lup was still reeling from that thought. The woman quickly moved from apology to worry as she leaned in carefully while Lup shook herself slightly and sat up to smirk at her.

“It’s all a-ok, don’t worry about it.” Lup leaned back against the wall as she tried to play it off but the dwarven woman seemed unconvinced and yet she still left with the kids, waving as she went. Lup waved back as she rolled her shouldered against the wall, savoring the familiar feeling. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back as she thought about the feeling of something missing that weighed down in her chest. She chuckled to herself, the laughter echoing off the walls of the cave as she thought, a boy, that's the only key missing?

 

Lup was excited once she finally found something in her books that could be useful,she knew deep down that it would work. It was dangerous, she needed to be careful, but it would work. With the carefulness of a new mother she read over the spell over and over and requested chalk when someone came in with her food. Ever so carefully she dictated the lines and curved the circle, it was only half though. Even If she could move Lup’s legs would not allow her to leave her spot.

    People came and went, interested in learning what she was doing and shet she needed all the spell companies for. She lied and told them it was to make a barrier around the cave to prevent people from finding it or entering. Most seemed satisfied with that answer but one of the Rock Seekers came along and glanced at the spell she was almost done with and put on a fake smile as they offered her food. Lup wasn’t an idiot so she took the food with a matching smile. As her hand glanced along the plate both of them looked up at one another, eyes meeting each other to read each other for a quick read before Lup took her food and placed it besides her before wishing the man goodbye. He left, with and extra glance across his shoulder as she moved to work and take a small bit out of her plate of food. It was her last after all, she figured she’d overstayed her welcome anyways.

    Weeks passed by as she kept herself lit by a flame in her hand. Weeks had passed and she didn’t know the hour or how long she's been stuck in the caves. She let the pain that pulsed in her stomach and brain pass as she looked towards the entrance hoping they would come soon. She may have repressed the pain in her body but she was still an impatient person. But she would not get up and seek them herself, because she had to wait.

    The scuffling of many small feet was the highlight of her week, looking up at the entrance as she snuffed the flame in her hand, allowing the cave to go dark. It was useless in the after thought but it made her feel better as the torchlight of the dwarfs approached and she had the usual brand reveil as the flame lightened up the coven, relieving Lup and the circle she sat it, half of it on the wall and the other half laid out on the floor.

    The group of four Rock Seekers, the three head leaders and the man that saw what she was making, gasped sharpy as they looked at her state and the truth of the mage’s words. They approached warling, thinking she couldn’t reach them from where they stood. She looked up at them, squinting challenge at them and as the mage turned to tell something to them she reached up, umbra staff in hand firing a scorching ray directly at the group.

    The ray moved and got the first dwarven lady in the shoulder causing her to fall to the ground with a large thump. Alternatively this ray also caused the dwarfs to spring into action, all of the male dwarfs pulling weapons before the wizard worked on a spell. He and Lup traded a spell, her spell being more lethal while his scorched the wall just besides her head. The two remaining dwarfs looked at each other and one charged at her with his warhammer while the Lead rockseeker looked on past at the safe and made a run for that. Lup easily blasted the man away but as she turned to look at the vault it had closed shut behind him. She cursed as she felt a heat rise from it and cast a spell to keep him closed and contained in the vault before she moved to work the other dwarfs around her. As quick as she could manage Lup worked and managed to read for the book for the spell. 

She could feel magic pulsing through her as she words and read each spell and as she finished flames engulfed her as she screamed while new pain rippled through her body. It only lasted a second before she gasped in new air and se felt less weighted than before. 

As she registered the weightlessness in her mind the pain came back, hitting her like a truck. But It was not only the pain but the pressure of memories coming flooding towards her all at once. A hundred years worth of memories came back at her incorporeal body, normally these wouldn’t cause her pain, elves usually live more than a hundred years, but these memories wera ll new to her. They came in like a flash and she gasped and reach up as if she needed air now. She reached up and felt at her face, thinking tears were running down but her skin was taut and cold as she only breathed shallowly into the deathly silent cave.   
She remembered them now, her brother, Taako, always there besides her through thick and thin. Magnus, Davenport, Merle, Lucretia, they were all filled in and the weight that had existed in her chest for the last four years rose up. It only truly feel away when she thought his name. Barry, she forgot Barry somehow. She was away from her boys, lost and alone for four years.

That is when her grief turned into anger. Scanning the recent memories she saw Lucretia who was overwhelmed with the relics and decisions so her last choice was to turn on them. Turn on her the people she trusted the most. Lup cried out in frustration as she looked to the sky and started to move, she needed to find BArry, find Taako, anyone and get back at her before the darkness came, they needed to go to the ship and get out.

    Then the feeling tugged at her again, the one to stay where she is but this time it wasn't in her brain, it was a physical bond tying her to the spot. Lup was about to turn on the feeling in her litch for till she turned and saw her body burnt up, already a skeleton brandishing the red robes over her and holding onto her umbra staff. She looked at it and tried to move again and she pinpointed the source as she was tied to the Umbra Staff in her arms. 

    Lup laughed as she pulled again  but the staff kept her in place. She tried again, hoping to break the bond but the staff held tight to her licht form. Of course she fucked up the spell enough to tie herself to her staff.  She laughed again, almost hysterically as she drifted closer to the staff and rested there, anger and rage still there but the staff and the feeling of keeping her in placed seemed to calm her down enough for the Umbra staff to let her rest. At least until someone claimed it anew.


End file.
